Lake Vyrnwy at dusk

Dave — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:04:52 +0000

Nikon D700, 17-35 AF-S at 24mm, 6 seconds @ f/22

A quick postscript on the Red Kite trip – arriving at Welshpool late Friday and keen to make the most of the weekend Andy Keen took me to Lake Vyrnwy, about half an hours’ drive from the station. The sun and the heat of a five-hour train journey rapidly turned into drizzle, but as the last elements of light started to disappear we weren’t to be dissuaded. Even a close encounter with the slope didn’t put us off as we clambered with our tripods.

I didn’t get many shots that were usable and spent more time wiping the rain off the lens than anything else. This final shot had potential, and with a little tweak in Lightroom on the saturation and a vignette effect I’m pretty pleased with the result.

Jurassic Coast Rebel

Dave — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:58:58 +0000

Last weekend the family trooped off to the coast – the cove to be more accurate, at Lulworth in Dorset. It’s an absolutely beautiful location and the weather was fantastic. We met up with a bunch of my wife Sam’s colleagues, many of which are keen photographers.

Gathering in the car park I looked at all the cameras around me and decided to rebel. There wasn’t a longer focal length than 24mm on display, so I swapped the 24-70 f/2.8 on my D700 for another good landscape lens – the AF-S 70-200 f/2.8.

What do you mean, I hear you ask? My logic was firstly that I didn’t want to come away with the same shots as everyone else. This meant a resolution that I wouldn’t take a shot of Durdle Door as well. Does that make me a bad man? Secondly I knew that there would lots of interesting areas of detail around the cove and buildings which would be fun to look for. The zoom lens should suit this down to a tee, as well as a few of my favourite people shots!

D700, 70-200mm at 200mm, 1/400 at f/8, ISO 200

The stacks of fish containers by the boats caught my eye with the contrasting colours and lines. I tried some shots close by with buoys and the angles of the boats themselves but they didn’t really come out how I thought they would.

D700, 70-200mm at 200mm, 1/200 at f/8, ISO 200

There’s a walled pond just up from Lulworth Cove and I spent far too long tracking these little fellows! The predictive autofocus worked really well while panning on a monopod. The wall that protects the pond makes it difficult to get a good low angle, so the longer focal length is needed to shoot from a narrower angle. I liked this shot with the symmetry of the duckling’s bow wave!

D700, 70-200mm at 86mm, 1/320 at f/8, ISO 200

I love my people shots. It helps when you’ve got great subjects like the lovely Caitlin and her Dad as subjects. I don’t even mind the split contrast in the sunlight, I love the carefree joy of the two year old and adoring look from Dad. Wait till she brings boys home Julian!

D700, 70-200mm at 78mm, 1/160 at f/20, ISO 200

And just to show that you can take a landscape shot with a longer lens – as you’re more selective it forces you (hopefully!) to tighten the composition a little. As I didn’t have a polariser with me I applied a half stop grad on the sky to reign it in.

So there you have it. Lulworth Cove without a shot of Durdle Door. I might have to go back with a wide angle lens, but don’t tell anyone…

Dave BenhamLandscape | Dave Benham

Lake Vyrnwy at dusk

Jurassic Coast Rebel